Woodbank Blacks 1-1 Eagles Options

[twopants]

EAGLES 1 - 1 WOODBANK JUNIOR BLACKS

It was a trip away from Saint Mary’s today for the Eagles with another game against Woodbank Junior Blacks, a team whom we beat easily in the cup and who beat us equally as easily in a league game on our patch so anything could happen.

Conditions were good and Mr Manager had a bit of a reshuffle with the starting positions putting three boys at the back in an attempt to prevent giving away a couple of daft goals in the first few minutes as we have in our last three games.

Ciaran was today’s keeper, the backline was made up of Tom, Daniel and Noah with today’s captain George and Joel on the wings and Mitchell as lone striker. This left Ben G, Ben R and Adam on the bench.

The new formation was a success from the off as Woodbank attempted to go on the attack but were given no way of getting through. The boys looked better than in their previous couple of fixtures getting straight in on the action and trying to surge forward at every opportunity. Noah was a man possessed in the centre of defence, and the odd one that did sneak through was handled immaculately by Ciaran

It was a pretty even first half with the home side having a few more chances and looking a little bit the stronger side-reflected in them going a goal up on the stroke of half time.

The boys came out strong in the second half and looked determined to get the equaliser which came quite quickly when a shot by Tom-which was well on target was deflected by a Woody defender as far as George who sent the ball flying over the line. From then on it was virtually one way traffic with George, Tom, Adam and Mitchell causing all sorts of trouble on the attack

There were chances aplenty after the equalizer, (most of which unfortunately seemed to land at left footed Tom’s right foot!) and the Eagles looked more like their old selves and definitely had the best chances in the second half. There was one close shave late on when a Woodbank screamer hit the post (Ciaran had it covered though!) but it’s about time we had a bit of luck and we really deserved to bag the winner but after a series of defeats the draw will do just fine.

As statto Noah pointed out after the game… we beat them 9-8 on aggregate!

Man of the Match - Tom ‘The Rocket’ R